LENT | In the little things with Ray McManus
We'll be writing and finding glory in the ordinary things, the little things, the things we depend on the most. This three part workshop allows twelve participants to get messy with words, turning a phrase and capturing mystery in your own words. The workshop will be led by poet Ray McManus. Read more about Ray's story + approach to writing poetry below.
But first, the details.
This workshop is limited to 12 participants so Ray can work individually with us as well as a group. Registration is open until it gets full. It's first come, first serve.
We'll meet on the following Sundays during lunchtime:
3/15, 3/22, 3/29
12:00-2:00 PM @ Central Energy:
Cost - $50 ($25 for food, $25 for the poet)
Register below:
More About Ray:
"I fell into writing poetry by accident, by being stupid and lucky. There weren’t many places for a kid like me to be immersed in writing poetry—a kid like any other kid growing up in rural South Carolina in the early 80s. Like any other kid, I wasted my latchkey summer on intermittent spurts of watching television and trying to burn the house down. I didn’t start writing poetry until college, where I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I’d be an engineer or maybe work in forestry or specialize in welding or heating and air. I floundered.
My college adviser, a brilliant English professor to whom I owe my life, suggested I take a poetry writing workshop at USC. She was tough, so there was no argument from me, but I’ll admit I was nervous. Poetry seemed like a mountain I was too intimidated to climb. Like most people, I had the wrong idea about writing poetry. I thought I needed inspiration, which would somehow create the next “Ode on a Grecian Urn” or “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” I thought it meant I had to live in a city loft, cultivate a taste for cheeses, and listen to jazz music.
On the workshop’s first day, the professor came to class with box of crayons and had us pick out a crayon without looking. We were then instructed to write a poem about the color of the crayon, without using the sense of sight—what does red smell like, what does green feel like, what does yellow taste like. Each class, he had new prompts and exercises. We wrote constantly. We shared. We wrote some more. We shared some more. And within a few classes, we were all excited about the next workshop and who would rise to the challenge and slay it." -- https://towncarolina.com/article/power-of-the-pen/